Monthly Archives: August 2014

There are vapires (or vampyres), weres, witches, ghosts, faeries, demons and angels to name a few. And then there are the combinations and variations of all of the above. So which do you like best?

Do you like to switch them up? Read a vampire novel followed by a ghost story, following by something about the fae? That’s what I do.

It depends on my mood what I want to read. Some days I feel like getting in deep with the undead, other days it’s exploring faery magic, and some days I just want a little animal mixed in with my reading. But most of the time it depends on whether I feel like reading a mystery, thriller or historical because all paranormal books are about more than just the paranormal being that is the protagonist. There’s got to something more, something interesting, grabbing in the story that keeps me reading—more than just the fun of the author’s take on the supernatural.

My biggest problem, though, is that I love historicals. I love to read about another time and place. And there just aren’t that many paranormal historical books. Which is why I write.

Since I couldn’t find the paranormal historicals I wanted to read, I started writing them. I’ve always been fascinated with the fact that some people just have an amazing talent (whether it be painting, music, science or politics) and so I created a world where those with talent aren’t ordinary, but magical. Their talent is their magic. I called them Vallen (Latin for powerful) and have so far written three full length novels and one novella about them in my Storm series and, more recently, in my Children of Avalon series (the two series are set in two different time periods—the first in Regency England, the other in post-Arthurian England).

So, what do you enjoy in your paranormals? Witches? Vampires? History? Mystery? I’d love to know! And just for your enjoyment, below is an excerpt (the proglogue) from my Regency set paranormal, Magic in the Storm (available wherever you buy ebooks).

June 21, 1794

The wind whipped through Tatiana’s hair, prying it free from her forehead where it had been plastered with sweat. Heat swirled around them threatening to burst into flames. Vallentyn jumped as a bolt of lightning shot into the ground just feet from where he stood coddling that infant in his arms.

“Tatiana, stop this! Stop it right now. You cannot kill our son.”

“Our son?” she repeated, fury burning through her. “And what of my daughter?” she shouted over the gale of hot wind that wove around them. “What of the prophecy? What…” her voice faltered.

She was tired. Too tired. Although the birth had been easier than many of the others, she was getting old. Only her fury at this injustice kept her awake now.

How could this have happened? Her child. Her beloved. Her daughter. Seventh child of the seventh child in the seventh generation—a boy!

Tatiana shoved down the pain that threatened to overwhelm her and instead burst forth with another bolt of anger, coming even closer to Vallentyn this time.

“I don’t know, Tatiana. Truly, I don’t know. But you cannot kill him!” Her husband stood his ground and pleaded with her even as the sweat poured down his forehead.

In a very brief moment of weakness, Tatiana almost felt for him. But then she caught sight of the abomination in his arms and the hot wind picked up once more.

“I can and I will,” she shouted. “He was not meant to be. I was to have a girl. She was to be the most powerful Vallen in generations. As powerful as Morgan Le Fey.” Tatiana could barely keep the tears from her voice. “My Morgan. She was to be…”

“I know, Tatiana,” Vallentyn’s voice filled with soothing magic. “But he is still our seventh child. Perhaps he will be powerful. Perhaps the prophecy will still hold…”

“Perhaps? Perhaps nothing! Perhaps he will burn in hell!” The temperature around them rose even hotter.

“Perhaps we all will, but you cannot kill him. Swear to me that you will not.” Vallentyn’s pale blue eyes looked deeply into her own and she could feel herself crack and cool. How could he do this to her? He was not nearly so powerful as she, and yet…

“I swear.” The words burned through her. They scorched the air and hung there dripping sweat and then were blown away on his cooling breeze.

The child peered at her from within the protective cocoon of his father’s arms, his large dark eyes framed with black lashes so like her own. He reached out a small fisted hand toward her, but Tatiana turned away. She hated him as she had never hated before.

The other day I mentioned the Highland Gardens time travel with faeries romance series so I thought I should share the cover of the next novel in the series–Just Wait For Me.

Just Wait For Me

A Highland Gardens Novel

Book #3

Release Date: TBA

In the chaotic aftermath of the battle of Flodden, an injured Highland warrior makes a bargain with a twenty-first century lass cast back in time by a meddling, matchmaking faerie. Stephen MacEwen promises that if the lass will help him get home, he’ll find a way to send her forward to her own time. But is that a promise he’ll want to keep after finding love in Jillian O’Donnell’s arms? And after saving Stephen’s life, will Jillian want to go?

I’ve always been intrigued by the concept of time travel, as has countless authors and scriptwriters. Whether to the past, to the future, or both, movies and literature fuel the imagination. The devices enabling our movement through time varying with the different psyches of their creators. Many are sci-fi. Many pure fantasy. All stretch the borders of reality.

From H.G. Wells’ time machine to the 3D fax machine in Timeline.

From the TARDIS (appearing as a blue British police box) of Doctor Who to the time traveling DeLorean from Back to the Future.

Some of my personal favorites are the standing stones in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, the use of self-hypnosis and a pocket watch in Somewhere in Time, and ‘the gate’ in in the movie Millennium.

I’ve been so fascinated by the idea of time travel, especially to the past, I’ve included the element in all of my romance novels. In the Highland Gardens time travel romance series a faerie-enchanted garden gate propels the characters to the past of the early 16th century.

* * *

Excerpt from Just Beyond the Garden Gate…

Unease skittered along Laurie’s spine as she walked with Caitrina to the back gate. She frowned when she smelled the now familiar exotic fragrance on her friend. “What the hell?”

A tinkling sound confirmed her fear.

The gate swung open.

He stood just beyond the garden gate. Her pulse jackrabbited. Pulling away from Caitrina, she stepped back in panic.

Caitrina pressed a hand against Laurie’s back and shoved her forward. Terror forced the air from Laurie’s lungs as she tripped through the gate opening.

Nothing held her back, no barrier. She fell forward…over a precipice into a swirling fog, down…down…down through a dark tunnel. The walls spun. She plunged faster and faster. In the distance, she couldn’t tell how far, a blinding, bright light—just a white glow in a tunnel of blackness—showed. What was there? Death?

Oh God, what was happ—

All at once, she was sucked into the white brilliance. She choked on the scream in her throat, cringing against the intense whining assaulting her ears.

She spun, or everything around her was spinning, she wasn’t sure which. Her sensitized skin tingled as if zapped by an electric charge. Laurie squeezed her eyes shut against the brightness. With her eyes closed, she felt lost, more frightened. She opened them just as the light exploded into a million fragments of brilliant color, a dazzling kaleidoscope. Then she was falling again.

Down…down…down, faster and faster. Water flowed below her, a stream. She plummeted toward it. Bracing herself, she thought she’d crash into the rushing water, only to propel across it. She hit the ground hard and saw nothing more.

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In the Crimson Storm paranormal romance series a wormhole created by the energy of the Bermuda Triangle propels the hero and heroine to Jamaica 1715 where they must stop a Voodoo priestess from performing a curse.

Kimberly chewed on the edge of her lip, taut with anticipation. They’d been waiting for something to happen, though she hadn’t really believed the stories. The contents of her stomach shimmied. Was she ready to confront the unknown?

A cool mist advanced, quickly developing into dense fog, which expanded into an enormous semicircle not five hundred yards off deck.

“The RPM’s are dropping,” Robert reported.

The boat slowed to a near idle. Kimberly’s stomach lurched. She glanced at her watch. The second hand had stopped moving. She tapped on the crystal. Nothing.

She reached for Robert’s hand. “It’ll be okay,” she said, lacking true confidence.

Robert squeezed her fingers. “That’s my brave lass.”

The eerie fog swirled, encircling the sailboat yet kept a distance of about three hundred yards. Kimberly glimpsed the clear sky in the center—bright blue with no clouds. It was as if they were caught in the eye of a mellow storm.

Without warning, a large mass burst through the edge of the milky fog to hover about thirty feet above the surface of the water off their port side, throwing a huge shadow. The air smelled different. Like after a thunderstorm.

“What the hell is that?” Kimberly whispered.

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What are some of your favorite time travel devices from films and books? What would be your preferred mode of time travel? Would you rather travel to the past or to the future or to another dimension? We’d love for you to share your thoughts with us.

Brenda Scott, while being cured of cancer, had her world turned upside down when she shifted into a wolf. Now living in Quebec with her new pack, she wonders if her dream of being in a special operations unit is forever out of reach. Then there is the quiet man who watches her with the yellow eyes of a wolf wanting his mate. Will she be able to adapt to her new wild urgings?

Granger Thibault wants his mate more than anything in the world. But he knows that if he pushes her, she will fight back. Once a soldier and the Alpha female’s litter mate, Brenda is a force to be reckoned with. Can Granger find a way around Brenda’s hard shell to the soft woman waiting to be loved?

In my many decades on this earth, I have read stories about dragons. The more I read, the more the stories of European dragons, Asian dragons, and oddities that could be dragons (think Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster) gave me ideas of my own.

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So…one day I sat down and wrote a bookbout a Scottish villager cursed to change into a dragon at inopportune times due to a misunderstanding (yes, that’s all the plot I had at the time). Since I like to read about witches and witchcraft, I made my hero change into a dragon due to a witch’s curse. This book turned into Dragon’s Curse, which was originally published in 2010 by Whispers Publishing. When I got my ‘rights’ back, I published it myself. Research on the supposed habitat of dragons led me to choose an island known for its caves. What is more creepy than a damp, dark cave? Years later, further research brought a myth to my attention. Scottish folklore is full of dragon-like creatures, and when I researched dragons of Scotland, stories about the Loch Ness Monster came up. Some call it a wing-less dragon, and I used that information to write another book called Dragon In The Mist, my first self-published novella, which went on to win an award.

I have learned through trial and error that when dealing with mythological creatures instead of actual wildlife, the writer has a certain freedom over the other writer. Cheetahs and wolves, for example, look, sound, and act a certain way because they are real. Dragons have certain traits such as scales, talons, wings, fangs, spiked tails, etc. However, as a writer I can make it wingless, or purple. I can make it speak, fall in love, or shape-shift. The freedom to twist and turn the creature to enhance my story is why I love to write about dragons.I also set one book in America on the eve of the American Civil War after visiting Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor. That book, Southern Fried Dragon, is also found along with the other two in DRAGON Bites.